I've been trying to broaden my horizons from "Axe rush, REX to 8-10 cities, spam cottages, beeline steel + rifling + nationalism, burn the world to ashes." It's a very good strategy, and works very well... but it's also not always the best, especially on higher difficulties. To be fair, I sometimes mix it up a little (for example, I might chariot rush! ), but I'm hoping to get a better sense of alternative strategies. To that end, I just tried a specialist economy on Monarch... and totally crashed and burned. Although I blame it all on the map. So I'm trying again, only this time I'm putting it up here on to forum for advice, and I'll be taking it nice and slow. I'll be particularly interested in advice on...
-Tech pattern
-Worker micro
-Which wonders I shoot for, when, and where.
-Which specialists I run, when, and where.
-And most of all, how to keep the gorram thing running at and after Scientific Method.
Monarch difficulty, Epic speed, Fractal, no huts, no random events. Gandhi, who I haven't played in a long time. I'm going to do my level best to suppress the urge to rush anyone I find within 14 spaces of my capital, but if Alex is 10 spaces away and I have copper I make no guarantees!
The start (re-rolled twice to avoid an all-plains capital followed by an almost-all ocean capital):
I sent my warrior 1 SE and couldn't see any reason not to settle in place, so...
First-glance thoughts: Coastal and a river, which could speed up trade and expansion. A few solid food resources will help this city get going; 3 grass-hills and a marble means it could have significant early production. I could probably also go GP with this city if I had to, but since the east appears likely to have broad flat grass and floodplains, I'm thinking my GPP city probably goes there (if anything, the challenge is likely to be including enough hills/forests to get initial infrastructure built). I'm liking the marble for wonders (particularly GL, maybe temple of artemis if I go coastal?). Tundra to the south indicates where on the map I am. Wine and spices are nice later, but don't help immediately.
Initial moves: I don't really like founding a religion (I'm lazy that way). Masonry is probably a bit premature, although I'll want to hook up that marble eventually. Because I have no real commerce available to my capital right now, I think I'll go fishing first: fishing -> bronze working -> agriculture -> masonry. After that, I do need to unlock granaries and libraries plus start trading tech. so potentially pottery -> writing -> alphabet (although we'll have to wait and see). Build warrior -> fishing boat -> worker -> fishing boat (chop) -> worker (chop) -> settler (chop/whip?) -> warrior. Initial warrior explores a little bit to the east, then swings north / northwest around the capital to follow the coast up a ways. Second warrior checks out the south, and maybe pushes a little further east before heading back to escort the settler. Nothing really SE-specific here that I'm aware of, so this is just how I'd probably start Gandhi on this map anyways. I'm probably going to play out this part in an hour or so just because I don't see all that much original going on here, and stop when I've got my settler ready or something else comes up unless this is so radical it sparks riots in the streets and threats to firebomb my home (which I'd prefer to avoid, incidentally).
Three final notes. First, this is the first time I've tried attaching a save, so please let me know if it doesn't work. Second, apologies in advance if I get wordy. I try to avoid it, but I warn you that if you follow this you're probably going to learn a lot about how my mind works (or doesn't). Third, thank you so much in advance for the advice, and modest thanks in advance to any flamers for giving me a good chuckle.
-Tech pattern
-Worker micro
-Which wonders I shoot for, when, and where.
-Which specialists I run, when, and where.
-And most of all, how to keep the gorram thing running at and after Scientific Method.
Monarch difficulty, Epic speed, Fractal, no huts, no random events. Gandhi, who I haven't played in a long time. I'm going to do my level best to suppress the urge to rush anyone I find within 14 spaces of my capital, but if Alex is 10 spaces away and I have copper I make no guarantees!
The start (re-rolled twice to avoid an all-plains capital followed by an almost-all ocean capital):
Spoiler :
I sent my warrior 1 SE and couldn't see any reason not to settle in place, so...
Spoiler :
First-glance thoughts: Coastal and a river, which could speed up trade and expansion. A few solid food resources will help this city get going; 3 grass-hills and a marble means it could have significant early production. I could probably also go GP with this city if I had to, but since the east appears likely to have broad flat grass and floodplains, I'm thinking my GPP city probably goes there (if anything, the challenge is likely to be including enough hills/forests to get initial infrastructure built). I'm liking the marble for wonders (particularly GL, maybe temple of artemis if I go coastal?). Tundra to the south indicates where on the map I am. Wine and spices are nice later, but don't help immediately.
Initial moves: I don't really like founding a religion (I'm lazy that way). Masonry is probably a bit premature, although I'll want to hook up that marble eventually. Because I have no real commerce available to my capital right now, I think I'll go fishing first: fishing -> bronze working -> agriculture -> masonry. After that, I do need to unlock granaries and libraries plus start trading tech. so potentially pottery -> writing -> alphabet (although we'll have to wait and see). Build warrior -> fishing boat -> worker -> fishing boat (chop) -> worker (chop) -> settler (chop/whip?) -> warrior. Initial warrior explores a little bit to the east, then swings north / northwest around the capital to follow the coast up a ways. Second warrior checks out the south, and maybe pushes a little further east before heading back to escort the settler. Nothing really SE-specific here that I'm aware of, so this is just how I'd probably start Gandhi on this map anyways. I'm probably going to play out this part in an hour or so just because I don't see all that much original going on here, and stop when I've got my settler ready or something else comes up unless this is so radical it sparks riots in the streets and threats to firebomb my home (which I'd prefer to avoid, incidentally).
Three final notes. First, this is the first time I've tried attaching a save, so please let me know if it doesn't work. Second, apologies in advance if I get wordy. I try to avoid it, but I warn you that if you follow this you're probably going to learn a lot about how my mind works (or doesn't). Third, thank you so much in advance for the advice, and modest thanks in advance to any flamers for giving me a good chuckle.